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Rugel's nailwort, sand squares

American nailwort

Habit Plants annual; taproot filiform to slender. Plants annual or biennial; taproot slender.
Stems

erect, dichotomously branched, 5–50 cm, retrorsely to spreading- pubescent throughout.

erect or ascending to prostrate, branched, 5–60 cm, often retrorsely pubescent on 1 side.

Leaves

stipules ovate-lanceolate, 2–6 mm, apex acuminate, entire;

blade linear to linear-oblanceolate or linear-oblong, 3–25 × 1–2.3 mm, herbaceous, apex ± acute, moderately antrorsely puberulent.

stipules ovate-lanceolate, 1.5–7 mm, apex acuminate, fimbriate;

blade spatulate to oblanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, 3–20 × 1–4 mm, herbaceous, apex acute to obtuse or rounded, glabrous to scaberulous.

Flowers

5-merous, cylindric to narrowly lanceolate, with enlarged hypanthium and calyx cylindric to tapering distally, 2.3–3.5 mm, pubescent mostly proximal with hooked or usually straight hairs, sometimes with scattered straight hairs distally;

sepals flecked or solid red-brown, white distally, midrib obscure, linear-lanceolate, 1.5–2 mm, papery, margins white, 0.1–0.2 mm wide, papery, apex terminated by mucro, hood obscure, narrowly rounded, mucro short-conic, ca. 0.1 mm, glabrous;

staminodes filiform, widening proximally, 0.5–0.6 mm;

style 1, cleft in distal 1/10.

5-merous, ± short-cylindric, with slightly enlarged hypanthium and calyx widening somewhat distally, 1–1.8 mm, sparsely to moderately pubescent proximally with hooked to straight hairs;

sepals red-brown (sometimes finely striped or mottled), white distally, midrib obscure, obovate, 0.4–0.8 mm, leathery to rigid, margins white, 0.03–0.1 mm wide, thinly herbaceous, apex broadly rounded, hood broadly rounded, awn or mucro usually absent or minute;

staminodes narrowly triangular, 0.3–0.4 mm;

style 1, cleft in distal 1/6, 0.6–0.8 mm.

Cymes

terminal and lateral, 15–50+-flowered, often forming large, congested clusters 5–30 mm wide.

terminal, 9–25-flowered, ± compact, forming spheroid glomerules 2–6 mm wide.

Utricles

broadly ellipsoid to ± globose, 0.5–0.7 mm, smooth, glabrous.

ovoid to ellipsoid, 0.6–0.8 mm, smooth, glabrous.

Paronychia rugelii

Paronychia americana

Phenology Flowering late spring–fall. Flowering year round.
Habitat Woodlands, fields, clearings, roadsides, waste places Dunes, pine/oak woodland, fields, clearings, roadsides
Elevation 0-200 m (0-700 ft) 0-300 m (0-1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; GA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; SC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Plants of Paronychia americana with fewer flowers in lax cymes from Florida and Georgia were named subsp. pauciflora, a distinction that we do not feel is worth recognition.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 41. FNA vol. 5, p. 33.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Paronychioideae > Paronychia Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Paronychioideae > Paronychia
Sibling taxa
P. ahartii, P. americana, P. argyrocoma, P. baldwinii, P. canadensis, P. chartacea, P. congesta, P. depressa, P. drummondii, P. echinulata, P. erecta, P. fastigiata, P. franciscana, P. herniarioides, P. jamesii, P. jonesii, P. lindheimeri, P. maccartii, P. monticola, P. patula, P. pulvinata, P. sessiliflora, P. setacea, P. virginica, P. wilkinsonii
P. ahartii, P. argyrocoma, P. baldwinii, P. canadensis, P. chartacea, P. congesta, P. depressa, P. drummondii, P. echinulata, P. erecta, P. fastigiata, P. franciscana, P. herniarioides, P. jamesii, P. jonesii, P. lindheimeri, P. maccartii, P. monticola, P. patula, P. pulvinata, P. rugelii, P. sessiliflora, P. setacea, P. virginica, P. wilkinsonii
Synonyms Siphonychia rugelii, Gibbesia rugelii, Odontonychia interior, P. rugelii var. interior, Siphonychia interior Herniaria americana, P. americana subsp. pauciflora, Siphonychia americana, Siphonychia pauciflora
Name authority (Chapman) Shuttleworth ex Chapman: Fl. South. U.S. ed. 3, 397. (1897) (Nuttall) Fenzl ex Walpers: Repert. Bot. Syst. 1: 262. (1842)
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